GARY F. LYNCH | BLOG

Carlson Lynch Partner, Gary Lynch Name the Legal Intelligencer Attorney of the Year Finalist

Today, the Legal Intelligencer announced the 2019 Professional Excellence Award winners, highlighting the great work and achievements across the full breadth of the Pennsylvania legal community and naming Gary Lynch, a partner of Carlson Lynch, Attorney of the Year Finalist.

In the 2018 landmark cybersecurity and data privacy case, Lynch successfully argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that companies have a common-law duty to protect their electronically stored employee data. The high court’s ruling reversed two controversial lower court rulings that had tossed out a lawsuit against UPMC over a data breach that exposed the personal information of tens of thousands of current and former employees.

Earlier in 2018, Lynch was appointed co-lead counsel of national multidistrict litigation brought by over 70 financial institutions against Equifax, related to the company’s 2017 data breach.

Lynch is helping to shape the emerging area of data breach and privacy law through his work on several cases over the past few years, including data breach litigation involving Target, Home Depot, UPMC and Wendy’s. He was co-lead counsel for the financial institutions suing Home Depot, following the home improvement retailer’s 2014 data breach and on the five-person executive committee overseeing the prosecution of nationwide litigation against Target for its 2013 breach.

In addition to his work in the cyber security arena, Lynch continued his consumer protection and employee wage and hour practice in 2018, serving as co-lead for plaintiffs in a trial against the Penthouse Club in Philadelphia and securing a verdict of $4.5 Million on behalf of a class of exotic dancers who were misclassified as independent contractors by the night club.

Sexual Harassment

What It Is

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. It includes quid pro quo (something for something) harassment, which occurs when an authority figure, such as a manager, suggests that he or she will provide something to a person in exchange for sexual favors. It includes offering to promote an employee, threatening to fire or reprimand the employee for not complying, or hiring or not hiring an applicant based on acceptance or rejection of sexual advances. Sexual harassment is not limited to quid pro quo harassment. It also includes the creation of a hostile work environment. This occurs when there is physical or verbal conduct that is so severe and pervasive that it creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile work environment. This usually does not include one-off remarks or simple teasing. It can include:

Offensive remarks about a person’s gender
Sexual remarks – Comments made in a joking manner
Unwanted touching of any part of a person’s body

What You Should Know

Sexual harassment of any kind is illegal. You have the right to work in an environment that is not hostile. Your employer is required to ensure that you are not being harassed at work.

The harasser can be a manager, coworker, subordinate or even a customer. The victim and the harasser do not have to be opposite genders or sex. You may be a victim of sexual harassment even if the harassment was not directed towards you but you witnessed it occurring.

What You Should Do

What You Should Do First, you should keep a journal. Every time you are harassed, write down who said what, where you were, what time it was, who else was there, what you did in response, and anything else that you think is important about the harassment. In most situations, you should talk to your employer. Most employers have a system in place to report sexual harassment. If you do not speak to your employer about the harassment, you could be prevented from bringing a lawsuit in the future.

You should talk to a lawyer as soon as possible. A lawyer can help you decide what you need to tell your employer and how you should do it. If you have been terminated or fired because of sexual harassment, a lawyer can explain what options are available to you. Also keep in mind that there are statutes of limitations and administrative filing requirements that can be as short as 180 days. If you do not take action before the appropriate filing deadlines, you may not be able to take any action at all.

Gary Lynch is a partner of
CARLSON LYNCH

FedLoan Servicing of Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

Do you have a Stafford, PLUS, or Direct Loan serviced by Fed Loans (myfedloan.org)? Has Fed Loans ever placed your account into forbearance so that it could process your annual application for income-based repayment? Are you a participant in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program? We represent student loan borrowers whose path to loan forgiveness is delayed when Fed Loans puts their account into forbearance, or makes other administrative mistakes in analyzing loan forgiveness.

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Improper Employment Background Checks

Background checks often have errors or contain non-reportable information. We represent people who have not been hired or have been fired because of a background check. We pursue claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal law that protects consumers regarding the improper use of background checks, including claims for improper disclosure and authorization.

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Have you suffered a work injury in Pennsylvania? Were your workers’ compensation benefits cut after an Impairment Rating Evaluation (“IRE”)? In June 2017, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared IREs unconstitutional. We represent workers injured on the job, and depending on your situation, can ask the court to reinstate your benefits back to their pre-IRE amount.

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Marcellus Shale Gas Workers Wage Violations

We represent Marcellus gas workers regarding various wage and pay issues, including situations when they are misclassified as exempt from overtime, are only paid “straight time” instead of 1.5 times their regular rate of pay, are improperly paid an overtime wage which does not include all wages in the calculation, such as per diem pay, truck pay, etc., and when they receive improper pay for travel time.

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Overtime & Minimum Wage Violations

Payroll Discrepancies

We represent workers who are being denied overtime pay, who are not receiving minimum wage, who have been misclassified as independent contractors, who have been improperly designated as “exempt,” or who are being subjected to an illegal payroll practice.

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Employment Discrimination – Sexual Harassment

It is illegal to discriminate against an employee because of his or her race, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, pregnancy, military status and, in some jurisdictions, sexual orientation. We represent workers who have suffered an adverse employment action (firing, not hiring, demotion, transfer, pay reduction, etc.) based upon their membership in one of the foregoing protected classes. We also represent victims of sexual harassment, including hostile work environments.